Friday, November 15, 2013

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: MORE THAN A STATUE

Lumen Gentium
paragraph 51 (the conclusion of the chapter on the Pilgrim Church)

Catholics garner poor publicity when we misunderstand our
own traditions and (even innocently) abuse them.Take the cult of saints.One of the mightiest reasons to develop a
relationship with the saints is that they might influence you to live a better
life.We grow to know them and their
situation better and try to emulate their faith and bravery in our own
milieu.Sometimes, however, individuals
can become sidetracked with the various activities associated with the saint and
miss out on what is truly important.For
example, instead of praying through the intercession of St. Jude, learning more
about him, and trying to live a life in Christ more like he did, a person might
become focused on some particular action such as finding a prayer with the
instructions, “make 10 copies of this prayer and leave it in the church once
every week for 5 weeks and then your prayer will be granted.”So you check off that action and go on your
merry way.Where is the spiritual growth
in that?How did that bring you closer
to Jesus?How dangerously close that is
to superstition such as “never walk under a ladder or you’ll have bad luck.”“Run 10 copies of this on a copy machine and
leave it in a church and you will have good luck.”

Eh.

We are to grow closer to the saints in order to be more like
them who strive to be more like Christ so that, rather than taking away from
the worship of God, it will lead us more deeply into worship of Him Who is the
glory of the saints.By working together
this Body of Christ shall all be united at the banquet of the Lamb.

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WEEKLY SCHEDULE

MONDAY - Monday Diary: A day in the life of a priest.TUESDAY - Quote Tuesday: A post of an interesting quote along with various other things sitting on my computer from the past week such as links, polls, pictures, videos, or games.WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY - Thoughts for your consideration either from me or guest bloggers.FRIDAY - Friday Popourri - A grab bag of regular topics from symbolism to vocation stories.